The present invention relates generally to thrusters for satellite and other spacecraft propulsion, and more particularly to a Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) thruster.
Satellites require thrusters, or similar systems, for such satellite propulsion purposes as orbit raising, orbit maintenance and attitude control.
MEMS thrusters are micro-thrusters built upon a substrate of silicon or similar material. MEMS thrusters are built on a very small scale, usually on the order of millimeters. MEMS thrusters can use a variety of fuels including gases, solid fuel and liquid fuel. Example proposed MEMS thrusters are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,516,610 to Gilchrist et al., 6,516,604 to Mojarradi et al. and 6,378,292 to Youngner.
The promise of any MEMS technology is that it can leverage fabrication techniques from the integrated circuit (IC) industry to create ultra-miniaturized components. IC fabrication technologies enable integration of multiple functions on a single substrate or platform; inherently precise micromachining for better performance than traditional devices; batch fabrication to reduce manufacturing cost and time; and, of course, miniature parts.
MEMS thrusters have been proposed for propulsion on small satellites in a variety of configurations, offering a variety of advantages over traditional satellite propulsion systems.
Despite the promise of those proposed MEMS thrusters, they are based on flat panels with rigid substrates, suffering from disadvantages inherent to those approaches and otherwise not offering all the possible advantages from utilizing advanced MEMS technologies for MEMS thrusters.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide new and improved MEMS thrusters that both eliminate disadvantages of existing proposed MEMS thruster approaches and provide new advantages not found in the existing thruster prior art.